May 19 2008
Scared Straight and other Shock Programs
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Shock programs the great American Experience to scare teens to go straight.
| Parents frequently assume that a preview of the consequences their teen will suffer for stealing, violence and other crimes can scare them straight. What parent wouldn’t like to believe that if their teen is shown the choices between jail and freedom that the teen would wisely choose freedom. And, when this belief turns to anger parents often look for a program that will put the fear of the law into their teen. However, these programs are far from a panacea. |
Shock Programs
One tertiary youth violence prevention intervention meets the scientific criteria established above for Does Not Work: Scared Straight. Scared Straight is an example of a shock probation or parole program in which brief encounters with inmates describing the brutality of prison life or short-term incarceration in prisons or jails is expected to shock, or deter, youths from committing crimes. Numerous studies of Scared Straight have demonstrated that the program does not deter future criminal activities. In some studies, rearrest rates were similar between controls and youths who participated in Scared Straight. In others, youths exposed to Scared Straight actually had higher rates of rearrest than youths not involved in this intervention. Studies of other shock probation programs have shown similar effects. (For more information on Scared Straight and similar shock probation interventions, see Boudouris & Turnbull, 1985; Buckner & Chesney-Lind, 1983; Finckenauer, 1982; Lewis, 1983; Sherman et al., 1997; Vito, 1984; Vito & Allen, 1981.)